Ameraucana Forum
The Official Ameraucana Forum => Breeding => Topic started by: Tailfeathers on December 13, 2015, 11:10:08 PM
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Got my first blue egg in months yesterday. Not sure how long it's been but at least 3, maybe 4, months. Maybe longer. I keep forgetting to record when I stop seeing eggs. This is NOT unusual for my flock. Looked over some birds today that appear to be done but I'm still finding an occasional quill feather here and there. So I have some questions for y'all.
1) Does anyone else have birds that go off the lay and take months to molt? Particularly interested in hearing from the WBS breeders but other varieties please chime in too.
2) I assume there's a "molt gene"? Is there anything I can select for that might speed the molt up? I've had other breeds in the past where ya'd see a couple feathers one day and a week later the bird was running around literally almost naked.
3) IRT #2 above, is the molt gene linked to anything else?
4) It's been awhile but I've read in the past about a "force molt". Has anyone ever done this and, if so, did it work?
I know I can probably Google and find something but I'm thinking it's best to start here and see what y'all can have to say about your Ameraucanas and what insight you can lend.
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I have had some but over time the problem has kind of self-corrected - the climate here means my best time to hatch is December-March, anything after that is a gamble, so the birds who can't hit that window have kind of worked themselves out of the gene pool.
I have wondered about timing molts, though. From what I understand, a "forced" molt shocks the birds system, generally by severely limiting their food and/or water and putting them in the dark, and I don't want to do anything that extreme. But some of the old timers around here swear switching them to straight corn will put them into molt. I tried it one year, and also put them inside, not totally dark, but not bright light, either, and they did in fact start molting about 2 weeks later. Now, this was the end of summer and maybe a month earlier than normal, so it could have been sheer coincidence, and I only did it once, but I'm going to do it again this summer and see what happens. If I could bump that molt up a month I might have a decent bird for nationals. It would be nice to select the best bird to take, instead of the bird with the most feathers... ::)
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I would be careful about feeding too much corn to hens that are not in production - any time of the year. They can get too fat and then they will not lay well if at all. I think the main thing as part of a force molt is switching to an entirely different kind of feed. My choice would be switching them to just wheat or oats if they have been on some kind of mash or pellet.
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I've never tried the force molt, and to be honest don't like the idea of shocking a bird's system either, but I wonder if that would even make a difference in the length of the molt?
I see lots of folks have viewed this post but no comments. What are others experiencing? How long are they in the molt and not laying?
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My experience with molt is it is all over the board. Depends on a multitude of factors. I don't force molt.
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I've never tried force molting either. I don't really pay attention to if and when my birds molt, except when one is in an individual coop and it is obvious from all the feathers in the bedding.
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Never tried it either..I prefer to only do 3 or 4 hatches a year during spring lay...I can't keep any more growout pens for a bunch of different aged chicks...